Human On Board
by Wakadooia
Summary: Part 2 of the Space Vagabods series/AU. Cyclonus deals with the stowaway. (EDIT 16/01/2017: Updated/re-written)


The hallways were wide, tall and a shade of purple.

The best kind of hallway.

Certainly not the painful pristine white of hospital hallways.

He watched 'Cyrus' in front of him. He was big. Possibly about ten-foot, if Gavin had to make a guess. Though he wasn't sure if he was including the horns or not in that estimate. Gavin only came up to about his waist area, or at least roughly up to the base of his chest, maybe.

After a long, silent walk a slightly blue-er set of doors slid open with a quick push on a side panel, they were in the control room.

Or at least the main viewing area? The Pilot's room? What were the correct terms for this vessel? Gavin didn't know and he didn't care right now. There was a large grin permanently affixed to his face.

This was so much better than Earth.

SO MUCH.

It made the burning pain across his gut worth it.

There were two seats in front of the large see-through panels, through these 'viewing ports' many stars slowly trundled by and nebulas were visible in the distance. Like patches of numerous colour orgies providing the deep void of space with life and colour in their vivid splendour.

Gavin wondered how distracted he was getting as he bounded forwards and heaved himself into one of the chairs.

It was damn huge.

He must've looked ridiculous in it.

'Cyrus' stood over him and grabbed him by the shoulder again making him squeal out in pain, His hands were tough and dug in sharply to the still-tender skin, as he was moved over to the other chair.

"Hey! No touching man! That shit hurts after last night!" he complained once stuffed into the other chair. 'Cyrus' ignored him. Not too fond of being ignored he poked a hand at the console in front of him. Yes, this was definitely the 'command centre', had to be.

"What does this do?" He pestered. 'Cyrus' visually ignored him.

"None of your concern" He stated.

"What happens if I touch it?"

"Nothing"

"Oh"

That was a short conversation. 'Cyrus' checked a few readings from the console beside what must have been the steering device. It had something akin to a tank-shape on it and it looked half full.

"Is that the fuel reading?"

"Yes"

"Great! I'm learning"

"I do not care"

Damn this guy wasn't a happy bunny.

Heh, bunny.

Would it be rude or offensive to say those horns could be compared to rabbit ears? Thinking about his sore burned gut and looking at the big thick arms possessed by his 'pilot' and his current uncaring attitude, he thought better of it and shut up.

"I'm Gavin" He piped up again.

"That's fine" He responded.

"Can I know what to call you? Else it'll be Cyrus or Crab-dude for the rest of however-long-we're-here" He leant forwards in the massive chair.

"You stowed away on my ship. I thought even an irrational Earth-native like yourself would have found it smarter to vacate the premises of a potential explosion rather than climb inside a corpse. A move which prevented you from being picked up by my Bio-scanners, a Kleyxxian carapace is good at hiding such signals" he hissed making his discontent clear.

The quills on his back stiffened and twitched to reinforce this notion.

"Uhhh, I was injured and in pain, from the shock and fall, I merely did what would give me the best chances of survival given I couldn't run. I just blacked out" Gavin put back eager to make his case.

'Cyrus' paused for a second Gavin could tell that he thought about what he said and realised that he had taken the right, logical action for self-preservation.

"I'm not stupid enough to stay near some weird space junk that's beeping threateningly, I mean it was probably about to do something bad right?" Gavin scoffed. He paused when he saw the crab-guy look back at the fuel reading "Take it you're going to put me back on Earth then?"

"No, If you had awoken sooner, maybe. I do not have the fuel to waste on such a menial task" he grunted

"Hey!" Gavin snapped taking the 'menial' as an insult "Can I at least get some kind of leeway with your hard ass! I did help take Sath... arack or whatever down! He was pounding your ass!"

"That was merely the hard-light hologram malfunctioning I chose that rather than to show any part of my real form. I do not possess the same disguise technology as Sethbj'arck" he sniffed.

"Damn well I still helped! Can't you at least say your name?" Gavin whined, trying to get some kind of leeway in the current situation.

"In your tongue my name is Cyclonus, you may refer to me by that. Nothing else" Cyclonus gave in.

"Sweet" It was a success, small but he succeeded in getting some information out of it.

Cyclonus promptly went back to being silent.

Gavin stared out the window.

The passing stars and nebula were mesmerising, he was probably the first human to see any of these.

Not that something like that factored into Gavin's head.

He just thought they were pretty.

"So, you're gonna give that corpse to someone, they're gonna pay you and you're gonna get fuel with that and then dump me back on Earth?" Gavin tried to break the silence, suddenly realising with a cold feeling that this new, beautiful sprawling expanse of space might vanish from his prospects.

Cyclonus's quills popped up as his attention was roused.

"I think your presence would be most benny-fish-al if I sold you to somebody who would want you about"

"I'm not a pet!" Gavin hissed "Wait, Benny-what?"

"You're no real concern of mine either!" Cyclonus snapped before pausing a little "Neither is your language"

Gavin angrily jabbed at a button in front of him in response.

Window wipers.

He activated window wipers.

They squeaked uselessly as they cleaned the non-existent dirt off the viewing screen. Cyclonus glared at him and jabbed another button, turning them off.

"So. Bounty hunter then? Right?" Gavin went back to being placid just as quickly as he had snapped to anger.

Despite the differences in how their faces were constructed, it was clear just how irritated Cyclonus was getting. His mouth opened slightly and a noise similar to a trash can tossed into an engine came out. Gavin stiffened in the large chair leaning back into it.

That was something he wasn't prepared for.

"Dude... I-Is that like, your native tongue or some shit?" Gavin leant in Cyclonus's direction again, now finding himself further interested in the alien.

An actual alien language.

He didn't know that what he had actually done was curse about his bad luck in picking up the small alien beside him.

A few controls beeped and on a screen, a swamp-coloured planet showed up, its entire surface appeared to be covered in hexagons. That was on a screen, out the actual windows it was but a speck.

"Woooooow How long was I out to get here!?" Gavin grinned, the sight of an inhabited alien world sending a rush through him.

"Long enough to pass through a Space Bridge without any ill effects" Cyclonus muttered.

"Is this the place where Morrisey came from? Is it really inhabited down there?" Gavin began firing off a bunch of questions.

Clicking filled the room and Cyclonus messed about with another control panel. The clicking ceased only for another short burst of clicking to happen.

After the shorter burst Cyclonus took a hold of the Ship's steering piece and pushed it down. The craft hummed loudly before speeding up, closing in on the planet.

Unknown to Gavin the clicking was an inhabitant of the planet below requesting to know the meaning of their visit and being satisfied with the answer given.

The ship followed the pilot's command and the planet cruised closer. Thick trees soon engulfed them as the craft glided to a smooth patch of obviously unnatural material that had other ships, like the one Morrisey had, parked on it.

Two sides of the 'parking space' were dominated by tall hive-like buildings with several hexagonal windows in.

Two beetle-like figures were scuttling down a pathway towards the landing platform.

"You stay on the ship while I go hand over Sethbj'arck's corpse to the Kleyxxian authorities." Cyclonus stood up and punched in a few codes on the control panel in front of him. Everything on the panel went dark and all the screens came up blank "Don't touch anything"

He swooped out of the room in a few long strides and the door slammed behind him.

Didn't matter if he touched anything he'd disabled the power to the control panel, nothing would work.

Gavin dropped off the chair and ran to the door. The panel was not unreachable but high up and required Gavin to stretch. He mimicked as best he could what he saw Cyclonus do earlier, but for him, it made a negative sounding beep and a dull clunk from somewhere behind the door happened.

Gavin responded by punching the door.

He regretted it. Metal was not something to punch even in a moment of anger and he shuffled away from the offending door.

Noticing he was panting in the warm and slightly humid ship atmosphere Gavin peeled off his turtleneck.

Absolute fucking relief.

He sighed as he flapped his t-shirt about venting cool air across his body. It made the burn across his front tingle painfully as if covered in cling-film but the relief of cooling off was all that mattered. He just wanted to drop to the floor and go back to sleep now. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep while this ship traversed this 'space bridge' but he was knackered.

Some other noises echoed out from behind the door, sounded like thudding and something heavy being dragged along. Cyclonus hadn't even left the ship yet.

'Damn' was the only thing that passed through Gavin's mind. He retreated back to the chairs and pulled himself up onto the seat he had been on, standing up on the chair he got a complete view out of the viewing ports which had been left open. Unless they were always open, it was too early for Gavin to know, did he care about that? Probably not, but he thought about it.

A few moments later and Cyclonus walked along the bottom of the viewing port with Mr Morrisey's alien body slung over his shoulder as he gently ambled towards the city and the two waiting figures. As if carrying a corpse along was the most normal thing in the world.

"Sayonara Wankstain" he muttered as he watched his ex-teachers corpse get taken away.

Maybe Gavin should make the same proposition Seth had made to him but to Cyclonus?.

He dumped his abandoned clothes behind him on the chair and sat down, using the resulting clothes-mound as a pillow. It wasn't so comfortable but if he curled up tight he could fit his whole body on the seat portion of the chair.

Gavin had slept in worse places and he was out quicker than he could think as the continual gentle hum of the ship around him lulled him to sleep faster.

Throbbing from both sides of his body made him groan. Refusing to open his eyes just in case he could manage a few more minutes of sleep Gavin squirmed about.

He started out curled up, but now he had turned his spine into an awkward bend as one leg stayed curled up next to him and another had escaped the vicinity of the chair itself. One arm covered his face while the other jutted out in front of him.

With the way he woke up some days Gavin wondered if his body engaged in some unconscious dance routine as he slept.

Realising that no matter how long he kept his eyes closed he wouldn't drift back to sleep Gavin rubbed his eyes.

His body automatically unfurled so he was draped over each of the chair's arms as best as his small body could muster.

Peering through bleary eyes his vision was consumed by something purple.

Focusing his field of view as best as he could he noted the purple-ish panels he was looking at looked like armour and they moved. Casting a glance upwards and straight into a pair of curious red eyes.

Gavin had no control over the automatic panic-shock reaction as some bizarre warbling noise escaped him as he flailed his arms and legs around in a horrendous attempt at getting upright. Cyclonus only needed to back up half a step to avoid the whirlwind of small human limbs but he tilted his head in confusion.

"What kind of noise was that?" He asked once Gavin had stopped waving his arms about.

"Uuuh, my distress call" Gavin coughed out without a second thought "Were you watching me sleep!?" his voice went a little higher as he asked a little panicked. What if he had planned to eat Gavin while he was vulnerable?.

"Hm" Cyclonus sat back in his chair.

"No really man, why were you watching me sleep?" Gavin kept himself pressed tightly to the back of the chair he was in. As if it'd offer protection if the possibly-ten-foot-armoured-crustacean-being-thing decided to crush him.

It wouldn't.

Cyclonus didn't seem as if he was going to answer but after glancing at Gavin and his attempts at becoming two-dimensional he looked somewhat nervous

"I.. I was curious about your sleeping habits, I've never had anything else aboard like this before" He answered.

"Alright man" Gavin slowly breathed out, slightly calmed by the response and creeping back into a normal seated position.

All while watching Cyclonus who watched him back.

Gavin slowly thought that this must be weird for him too, he was alien to Cyclonus just as much as he was alien to him.

He let out an audible breath as nothing happened and Cyclonus went back to the controls, taking the ship off-planet.

Gavin was hungry now but he wasn't going to mention it.

No, wait his brain was going there anyway

"So is there any way to get a pizza or something out in space?"

Damn it brain.

Cyclonus turned and looked at him blankly.

"Pi-zah?" He repeated awkwardly. Well, that answered that question at the least.

Oh. Right. The proposition. Gavin hit at his head in a moment of frustration at his brain and muttered 'stupid' at himself and Cyclonus got increasingly confused.

"Look that fuck-face bug-guy you just handed over? Whats-his-face? Uh, he said I could hang with him and act as a distraction while he robbed shit. Well, that's not what he said but I've kinda figured out that's what he meant now, but is there any way I could do the same thing but hang around you instead?" Gavin was no wordsmith.

"What a curious thing to ask. I have already stated that I don't want you here and plan to hand you off to someone else yet you think I may keep you?" Cyclonus had a hint of amusement in his voice

"Oi Shrimpdick!" Gavin snapped bristling up "I AIN'T A SODDING PET! AND I DON'T want to be treated as such!" Gavin yelled quite angry at being compared to some kind of animal that could be palmed off, but with some effort he tried to put his voice in quiet mode "besides I'm not used to space yet... Can't I try and get my 'space legs' before you cart me off somewhere? So I don't, y'know completely fall flat on my arse?"

Cyclonus had watched him calmly not reacting at the outburst or at how quickly (and badly) Gavin had tried to calm himself down.

"I had made no implications of making you someone's pet that time" He answered in an honest voice. Gavin half pouted and shuffled back into the chair not making eye contact "I am not unjustly cruel".

"Right, well, okay then" Gavin mumbled.

Cyclonus returned to looking out the viewing port a clawed hand on the steering sticks.

Gavin proceeded to sit on his hands before he hit himself in the face for his stupidity.

Clinging onto the first alien might not be such a good idea, but he had nothing else.

Gavin was intensely glad to be off Earth but now the realisation of being in a galaxy with endless possibilities with no idea what to do was worrying him, he'd barely known what to do when he first lived on his own on Earth, let alone here. He should think before he acted more. Maybe he should try and get back to Earth, boring though it may be.

No Earth wasn't an option anymore.

If he went back, he'd probably slip up and talk about what he'd seen.

He'd get branded 'mad'. Again.

Locked up with nothing but his thoughts, unable to move, in a blank white room with no contact with anything but the doctors who'd visit him just to stare like they were at the zoo.

Then they'd all leave again and he'd be alone.

No that couldn't happen again.

He won't let it happen again.

Returning to Earth was suddenly becoming a rather scary prospect compared to the vastness of the galaxies around him.

Cyclonus was looking at him again. Confused and nervous.

Gavin turned to look back at him. The return to reality made him aware of how his body had experienced a cold rush and his chest was contracting tightly while sweat clung to him.

Damn it, thinking about those past grievances always did this. He just didn't want to go back to that place.

Though now he had just made himself look stupid probably.

"It's nothing!" he snapped trying to get Cyclonus to look anywhere but at him. He didn't like stares.

Cyclonus just seemed to frown and the ship hummed louder as it began moving faster.

Gavin hadn't noticed but the notification that kept a track of the fuel tank was full.

Gavin curled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in them.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN. Various other words with similar meanings ran through his head like a conveyor belt.

What if he gets dumped in an alien institution hospital-type place? He kept himself in that position for the rest of the ride.

Through embarrassed knees he watched the ship land between two other ships. One large and red with a set of symbols that looked like the word 'Dwarf' of all things and a flat yellow disk-type ship on the other side.

Cyclonus repeated his prior actions and deactivated all the buttons on the control panel, told Gavin to stay and left.

Alone in the cockpit Gavin was free to start banging his head against the wall.

Repeatedly.

He always had to fuck up.

Forget being sold off as a pet, he was probably going to be sold to a restaurant now.

The strange, creepy little alien from Earth who had a minor panic over bad memories and a shitty attitude.

It was a vague chance but Gavin jumped up at the door panel again.

It beeped and something clunked again.

No chance of escape.

After all, if Cyclonus really had gone to go palm him off somewhere else they'd come back here with him. He wasn't sure if he could take the armoured giant down or escape whatever came back to the ship with him and even then if he escaped he'd be at the mercy of the authorities of this place.

The cockpit was empty and he was alone exactly what had scared him earlier.

The large empty room felt a little as if it was expanding and getting emptier. Gavin's chest heaved and he ran back to the secondary chair again, getting up on the seat he vaulted over onto the control panel. Clinging to it he brought himself up to open view ports desperate to get a look.

Desperate to see something else, something that didn't leave him by himself.

A large multitude of ships inhabited the space around him, another 'car park'. Several variants of alien beings milled around the edges of the park. A few meandering through the ship's looking for their own while new ships glided in, taking up free spots as other ships left.

Gavin started counting the aliens. One looked like a condiment shaker come to life, another looked like a human but had rather monochrome colours bar bright horns atop its head. The variation was fascinating and the bustle of people calmed him down.

Gavin angrily rubbed his eyes. Too many people and people staring at him were his biggest pet peeves often causing a not-so-pleasant response. Yet sometimes, he felt the need to assure himself he wasn't alone.

Something that looked befitting of an old 50's monster movie trundled past in something spookily like a forklift truck and Gavin laughed.

Very different but very similar.

He wondered if any of these guys would do good in a fight.

If he was going to be going somewhere else with someone else, he wondered how a human would be able to make a name for himself here.

Thoroughly calmed down Gavin slid off the control panel, the sturdy set of controls hadn't broken beneath his foot so that was good.

But now his stomach really was growling and loudly too. Reaching to the chair he rummaged around his trouser pockets hoping he had left something in there. No luck unless a single piece of gum so old it could be used as a brick counted.

Gavin took a cautionary bite into it to see if it was edible. The more force he applied, the more he thought his tooth was going to break.

Not even bothering with the other pocket he decided to peer around the pilot's chair. Maybe Cyclonus kept something nearby that hopefully wasn't harmful to humans.

Next to the chair there was a large box, lifting the lid it was useless to him. The thing was filled with see through plastic-y bags containing a bright purple liquid that almost seemed to glow.

He wasn't an expert but usually, glowing stuff tended not to be safe for consumption.

He guessed he'd have to wait for Cyclonus to get back and make it a priority as the alien crustacean returned.

Gavin sat back in the chair grumpily putting his hand on his stomach and wincing at the still painful burn. Peering back out the window Gavin caught sight of a thin blue alien with digitigrade legs, get tackled to the floor by what must be this places equivalent of security as it tried to run. It drooped defeated as it was dragged away and Gavin giggled at the misfortune.

By the time any sort of noise occurred behind him, Gavin was sure he'd actually died. His stomach had led a revolt against the rest of his body and cannibalised itself.

Must have.

He couldn't have imagined how his face looked as he peered around the back of the chair but it provoked some curiosity in the other. With what was left of his energy Gavin bounded over to Cyclonus in a few hops

"Dude seriously please! I gotta eat something! Right now! As in urgent!" He gasped "Literally the only thing I found in here, before I gave up, was some weird glow-y purple stuff"

"You found my Energon?" He looked almost curiously at the box, but mostly curious about why anyone would look there.

"That's a stupid name"

Cyclonus looked down at him with a furrowed brow. Gavin probably would have reacted somewhat negatively at someone giving him that sort of bizarre look but he was too hungry to care. Cyclonus walked through Gavin quite easily and held out his arm. Gavin swore internally, he was holding something that looked exactly like a polyethene bag with a few wrapped up packages within.

"It would be rather rude and undignified of me not to at least get you fuel for a few... What was the Earth term?... Months? Mostly as I cannot return you nor can I put you anywhere just yet" He placed the bag on the floor for Gavin to reach "I am not familiar enough with your internals to be one-hundred percent accurate with what items you can eat. So I selected things that I found to be most like what I saw in your world."

"Right now I'm too hungry to give a shit! I've eaten rotten food before, I'm pretty sure my stomach can handle some alien junk" Gavin proclaimed thankfully.

Grasping the first thing he could he pulled off a tissue-like wrapping finding some watermelon-sized red-fruit like thing within. It had many green lumps upon its surface, like an apple-shaped strawberry. Gavin shoved a part of it in his mouth and bit the outer part of the 'fruit' it's 'skin' came away with a cracking noise as if he'd bitten into chocolate. The rest of the 'fruit' stayed rigid but the removed bit of skin revealed it's inside to be composed of intensely thick blue goop. Gavin had no control over his body as he felt a sickening ripple run through it as he doubled over coughing out everything in his mouth back into the tissue.

Cyclonus made an 'oh' like noise.

Gavin glared at the 'fruit' as if it cussed his ancestors. He proceeded to shove a part of it back into his mouth and eat it, determined to finish it. There wasn't anything he could think of to compare it's flavour too. The thick paste-like goop seemed to fill his entire mouth no matter how small a bite he took.

Cyclonus watched him confused as Gavin tore into the fruit refusing to let it 'beat him' he'd got through half of it before he started wobbling and had to drop it.

"I don't care if I spend all night projectile vomiting I needed that" he gasped wiping at the blue goo around his mouth.

Somewhat unsure of what to do with the rest of it, he wrapped it back up in the tissue and put it down next to the bag. He then looked back at Cyclonus with a 'what now look', when Cyclonus just watched him back oddly enough staring at his shirt more so than his face, he eventually seemed to remember something.

Rubbing at his stomach which now seemed quite tight it was Gavin's turn to frown

"Months?"

"Yes, I asked but it appears no one here would want to take you off my hands. One did but he's a collector and given your reactions to what I've said before I decided that he wasn't a safe option" Cyclonus explained "It would take a while to reach the next market station. You are 'stuck with me' so to say"

"Dude" Gavin stared, a full stomach perking him up, enough to ignore the word 'months'.

"What?" Cyclonus looked further confused at the word than anything else.

"Wait, why not just leave me here?" Gavin interrupted his own train of thought

"That would be a rather indecent thing of me to do" Cyclonus nodded, deeming abandoning him as 'unjust cruelty' which he proclaimed himself against.

Gavin was not entirely sure on what to say back.

Rather a nice thing to do for a 'stowaway'.

"Thanks man" Gavin smiled pleasantly surprised.

Cyclonus made an 'eh' response but made no move to get up from the chair as he turned around taking the ship out of the 'car park'.

"Of course now you're spending a prolonged time aboard my ship I'm going to have to make sure you're decontaminated. Before showing you to a relatively suitable living quarters for the time being"

Gavin could feel a swear or two poking at the edges of his mind. 'Decontamination' this could be 'fun'.

Cyclonus seemed to put the ship's 'autopilot' on before turning to him. With a rather unreadable expression, he put both his large hands out and began scooting Gavin out the door.

Nervous at the unknown event, Gavin kept trying to push back at Cyclonus's hands as if it would do anything of use. He was quickly escorted down to a lower level of the ship decorated with the same pale blue-purple as the rest of the ship.

Worryingly the room he was being herded to had many pipes leading into it via the ceiling. The door slipped open easily and the room had a pale teal circular patch floor and many pipes surrounding the teal spot on the floor, which was slightly raised and very much a 'chamber' within the confines of the room.

"Stand in the middle" Cyclonus requested as he quickly strode out of the room.

The place was cold and felt a little damper compared to outside.

A few minutes later heavy thudding akin to either running or jogging came closer, and the door opened to reveal Cyclonus had gathered Gavin's abandoned turtleneck.

The items of clothing were tossed in with Gavin.

"Normally I would ask you to remove your clothing but considering you have acquired minor burns across your front it would cause unnecessary pain to do so."

Gavin was a bit more worried.

Maybe being left at the market would have been preferable.

He had little time to react as a panel rose to meet Cyclonus's hand, a button was pressed and the pipes began to rattle. Slits opened and a cold substance was sprayed over Gavin who yelled out the first cuss word that came to mind as loud as possible and in the highest pitch he could muster.

Space better be worth it, he swore.

Damp and with a glower on his face Gavin was quickly shoved into a blank room with a tiny window in the side. Beneath the window a flat bed that appeared to look like a smooth rock took up most of the space in the room.

Mainly because it was the only thing in the room.

Cyclonus silently placed an empty box next to it so Gavin could get to the bed before retreating for a few minutes.

Gavin was rather swamped by nothing in this room and slowly shuffled over to the bed, Cyclonus reappeared again with something tucked under his arm.

"You have behaved quite well" He said "I noticed these seem to be the norm for your kinds sleeping arrangements"

He dropped what was under his arm on the floor revealing a bundle of blankets and a few pads, probably meant to act as pillows. The bag filled with possibly human-safe food was dumped next to it.

"I have altered some of the ships control panels to let you leave this room and enter the control room. There is a 'bathing room' through the door adjacent to your bed"

Gavin looked around the room again only this time he noticed the small panel he had missed the first time on one of the walls, presumably leading to this bathroom.

He looked back at the pile of blankets 'behaved quite well'?. Satisfied with his explanation Cyclonus left, not catching Gavin yell

"I'm not a damn pet!"


End file.
